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Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 165, NO. 8 | Friday September 5, 2008 DAILY TROJAN
InDEX
2 · News Digest
4 · Opinion
5 · Lifestyle
8 · Classifieds
10 · Sudoku
12 · Sports
Eco-rage: Ludacris and
Tommy Lee put the ‘G’ in
green. PAGE 5
Kickin’ It: The Women of Troy take
on Santa Clara today in their home
opener. PAGE 10
By CAT HERINE LYONS
Daily Trojan
Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) accept-ed
the Republican Party’s nomina-tion
with fervor Thursday night in
a primetime address that rallied his
party and promised to reach across
the aisle and improve the lives of
struggling Americans.
“Let me offer an advance warn-ing
to the old, big-spending, do-nothing,
me-first, country-second
Washington crowd: Change is com-ing,”
McCain said.
In a patriotic speech that empha-sized
country over party and tradi-tional
Republican values, McCain
touted his own experience, includ-ing
his time as a prisoner of war
in Hanoi, Vietnam, and attempt-ed
to differentiate himself from
Democratic nominee Sen. Barack
Obama (Ill.) on policies, although
his attacks against his opponent
were few.
Instead, McCain promised to
work with the Democrats and
change the partisan spirit of
Washington. Proudly defending
and professing his epithet as a mav-erick
politician, McCain promised
to work first and foremost for the
people, particularly aiming for the
support of the working class.
“I will reach out my hand to any-one
to help me get this country mov-ing
again. I have that record and
the scars to prove it,” McCain said.
“Senator Obama does not.”
The scene in the Annenberg lob-by,
where about 100 students gath-ered
to watch McCain’s speech, was
more subdued than the crowd of
more than 300 that overflowed the
lobby last week to witness Obama’s
speech.
Although applause and cheers
were minimal for the first thirty
minutes of McCain’s speech, the
last ten minutes elicited more reac-tion
from students as he electrified
the crowd in St. Paul, Minn., with
his call to stand up for what’s best
for America.
The speech was preceded by a
panel of journalists and political fig-ures,
hosted by the USC Annenberg
School for Communication and the
USC Jesse M. Unruh Institute of
Politics, and included Dan Schnur,
McCain’s communications director
during his 2000 campaign and now
the director of the Unruh Institute.
Other panelists included po-litical
journalist Richard Reeves,
broadcast journalist Judy Muller
and School of Journalism Director
Geneva Overholser. The discussion
broached the topics of the relevance
of conventions, how the press should
cover the scripted events, and what
McCain needed to accomplish with
his acceptance address.
McCain rallies national, college GOP
Speech plays up experience,
bipartisanship; pledges to give
party new direction.
| see McCain, page 3 |
Deleted site
causes stir
for Muslim
organization
By Ashley archibald
Daily Trojan
Provost C. L. Max Nikias has ap-proved
the deletion of part of a
Muslim student group website that
hosted religious documents urging
Muslims to kill Jewish people.
The material was removed from
a collection of scriptures known as
hadiths, historical sayings of the
Prophet Muhammad not included
in the Quran. The hadith in ques-tion,
along with thousands of oth-ers,
are hosted in their entirety on
a USC server as part of the now de-funct
Muslim Student Association’s
website.
Nikias first heard of the hadiths’
phrasing when Rabbi Aron Hier
of the Simon Wiesenthal Center,
a Jewish human-rights organiza-tion,
approached USC trustee Alan
Casden with his concerns. Hier was
troubled by five hadiths advocating
Muslim violence against Jews to has-ten
the coming of the “final hour.”
Nikias reviewed the site, and re-sponded
that “the passage cited is
truly despicable. … We did some in-vestigations
and have ordered the
passage to be removed.”
Members of the Muslim Student
Union, which is the dominant
Muslim student organization on
campus but which is not associat-ed
with the MSA, declined to be in-terviewed,
but in a statement, they
called Nikias’ actions “unprecedent-ed
and unconscionable” and said
they amounted to unwarranted cen-sorship.
Nikias did not consult the
group before he took down the ha-dith,
they said.
“We are outraged at the censorship
of a complete religious and classic
Provost Nikias takes down
posted documents calling on
Muslims to kill Jews.
| see WEBSITE, page 3 |
Josh Sy | Daily Trojan
By kate mather
Daily Trojan
For students picking class-es,
checking the Senate Course
Guide had become an integral
part of the registration process.
But as the Undergraduate
Student Government transitions
its popular professor ratings site
to a new home — taking down
the old version in the process this
summer — many students said
they’ve been left without a vital
resource in deciding which class-es
to take.
The guide, an online forum
where students can post infor-mation
about courses and pro-fessors,
is commonly referred to
when students are making deci-sions
about their schedules. Many
students said they did not know
that a new site had been created
in April.
“I was worried there wouldn’t
be a course guide,” said Clem
Bradley, a junior majoring in
physics/computer science. “I was
checking for it at the end of the
summer and couldn’t find it. My
guess was that it was down.”
One complaint is that the new
site was started without import-ing
any feedback from the old
course guide. Without access to
the old course guide and with few
new reviews to consult, some stu-dents
said they felt they had lost a
resource during registration.
“Once Senate Course Guide
was gone, you were kind of stuck
with finding someone who had
the professor beforehand or just
going in blind,” said Josh Moser,
a junior majoring in broadcast
journalism.
Phil Ehret, USG director of
Academic Affairs who oversees
the program, said that word of
mouth is one of the key ways to
spread the use of the new guide,
which currently has reviews for
more than 150 different classes.
“It’s up to students to get it up
and running and put reviews up,”
Ehret said. “We’re encouraging
everyone we can.”
Ehret also said USG tried to
New USG Course Guide misses the mark
Students say lack of reviews
on newly launched site leaves
them groping for advice.
| see GUIDE, page 3 |
Leah Thompson | Daily Trojan
Logging on · USG launched a new course guide last April. When the
old site was taken down this summer, some students were left hanging.
Photo courtesy of 2008 Republican National Convention and Reflections Photography
Mr. Maverick · Sen. John McCain addressed delegates at his party’s national convention Thursday
night (top). At the Annenberg lobby on campus (left), dozens of students gathered to watch.
“I’m not in the habit
of breaking promises
to my country and
neither is Governor
Palin. And when we
tell you we’re going
to change
Washington. ... You
can count on it. ”
· · ·
Sen. John Mccain

Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 165, NO. 8 | Friday September 5, 2008 DAILY TROJAN
InDEX
2 · News Digest
4 · Opinion
5 · Lifestyle
8 · Classifieds
10 · Sudoku
12 · Sports
Eco-rage: Ludacris and
Tommy Lee put the ‘G’ in
green. PAGE 5
Kickin’ It: The Women of Troy take
on Santa Clara today in their home
opener. PAGE 10
By CAT HERINE LYONS
Daily Trojan
Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) accept-ed
the Republican Party’s nomina-tion
with fervor Thursday night in
a primetime address that rallied his
party and promised to reach across
the aisle and improve the lives of
struggling Americans.
“Let me offer an advance warn-ing
to the old, big-spending, do-nothing,
me-first, country-second
Washington crowd: Change is com-ing,”
McCain said.
In a patriotic speech that empha-sized
country over party and tradi-tional
Republican values, McCain
touted his own experience, includ-ing
his time as a prisoner of war
in Hanoi, Vietnam, and attempt-ed
to differentiate himself from
Democratic nominee Sen. Barack
Obama (Ill.) on policies, although
his attacks against his opponent
were few.
Instead, McCain promised to
work with the Democrats and
change the partisan spirit of
Washington. Proudly defending
and professing his epithet as a mav-erick
politician, McCain promised
to work first and foremost for the
people, particularly aiming for the
support of the working class.
“I will reach out my hand to any-one
to help me get this country mov-ing
again. I have that record and
the scars to prove it,” McCain said.
“Senator Obama does not.”
The scene in the Annenberg lob-by,
where about 100 students gath-ered
to watch McCain’s speech, was
more subdued than the crowd of
more than 300 that overflowed the
lobby last week to witness Obama’s
speech.
Although applause and cheers
were minimal for the first thirty
minutes of McCain’s speech, the
last ten minutes elicited more reac-tion
from students as he electrified
the crowd in St. Paul, Minn., with
his call to stand up for what’s best
for America.
The speech was preceded by a
panel of journalists and political fig-ures,
hosted by the USC Annenberg
School for Communication and the
USC Jesse M. Unruh Institute of
Politics, and included Dan Schnur,
McCain’s communications director
during his 2000 campaign and now
the director of the Unruh Institute.
Other panelists included po-litical
journalist Richard Reeves,
broadcast journalist Judy Muller
and School of Journalism Director
Geneva Overholser. The discussion
broached the topics of the relevance
of conventions, how the press should
cover the scripted events, and what
McCain needed to accomplish with
his acceptance address.
McCain rallies national, college GOP
Speech plays up experience,
bipartisanship; pledges to give
party new direction.
| see McCain, page 3 |
Deleted site
causes stir
for Muslim
organization
By Ashley archibald
Daily Trojan
Provost C. L. Max Nikias has ap-proved
the deletion of part of a
Muslim student group website that
hosted religious documents urging
Muslims to kill Jewish people.
The material was removed from
a collection of scriptures known as
hadiths, historical sayings of the
Prophet Muhammad not included
in the Quran. The hadith in ques-tion,
along with thousands of oth-ers,
are hosted in their entirety on
a USC server as part of the now de-funct
Muslim Student Association’s
website.
Nikias first heard of the hadiths’
phrasing when Rabbi Aron Hier
of the Simon Wiesenthal Center,
a Jewish human-rights organiza-tion,
approached USC trustee Alan
Casden with his concerns. Hier was
troubled by five hadiths advocating
Muslim violence against Jews to has-ten
the coming of the “final hour.”
Nikias reviewed the site, and re-sponded
that “the passage cited is
truly despicable. … We did some in-vestigations
and have ordered the
passage to be removed.”
Members of the Muslim Student
Union, which is the dominant
Muslim student organization on
campus but which is not associat-ed
with the MSA, declined to be in-terviewed,
but in a statement, they
called Nikias’ actions “unprecedent-ed
and unconscionable” and said
they amounted to unwarranted cen-sorship.
Nikias did not consult the
group before he took down the ha-dith,
they said.
“We are outraged at the censorship
of a complete religious and classic
Provost Nikias takes down
posted documents calling on
Muslims to kill Jews.
| see WEBSITE, page 3 |
Josh Sy | Daily Trojan
By kate mather
Daily Trojan
For students picking class-es,
checking the Senate Course
Guide had become an integral
part of the registration process.
But as the Undergraduate
Student Government transitions
its popular professor ratings site
to a new home — taking down
the old version in the process this
summer — many students said
they’ve been left without a vital
resource in deciding which class-es
to take.
The guide, an online forum
where students can post infor-mation
about courses and pro-fessors,
is commonly referred to
when students are making deci-sions
about their schedules. Many
students said they did not know
that a new site had been created
in April.
“I was worried there wouldn’t
be a course guide,” said Clem
Bradley, a junior majoring in
physics/computer science. “I was
checking for it at the end of the
summer and couldn’t find it. My
guess was that it was down.”
One complaint is that the new
site was started without import-ing
any feedback from the old
course guide. Without access to
the old course guide and with few
new reviews to consult, some stu-dents
said they felt they had lost a
resource during registration.
“Once Senate Course Guide
was gone, you were kind of stuck
with finding someone who had
the professor beforehand or just
going in blind,” said Josh Moser,
a junior majoring in broadcast
journalism.
Phil Ehret, USG director of
Academic Affairs who oversees
the program, said that word of
mouth is one of the key ways to
spread the use of the new guide,
which currently has reviews for
more than 150 different classes.
“It’s up to students to get it up
and running and put reviews up,”
Ehret said. “We’re encouraging
everyone we can.”
Ehret also said USG tried to
New USG Course Guide misses the mark
Students say lack of reviews
on newly launched site leaves
them groping for advice.
| see GUIDE, page 3 |
Leah Thompson | Daily Trojan
Logging on · USG launched a new course guide last April. When the
old site was taken down this summer, some students were left hanging.
Photo courtesy of 2008 Republican National Convention and Reflections Photography
Mr. Maverick · Sen. John McCain addressed delegates at his party’s national convention Thursday
night (top). At the Annenberg lobby on campus (left), dozens of students gathered to watch.
“I’m not in the habit
of breaking promises
to my country and
neither is Governor
Palin. And when we
tell you we’re going
to change
Washington. ... You
can count on it. ”
· · ·
Sen. John Mccain